"New" first chapter! With help of .stargazing .from. earth, my beta!

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Today was my first tournament. I was wearing my archery school uniform; a white skirt, black belt, white t-shirt, and a pair of black boots.

I was excited, but extremely nervous; I was couldn't stop myself from biting my lips. It was a bad habit, I knew, but it was also comforting in a way. It took my mind off what I was about to do.

"Sweetheart, you need to stop biting your lips or they will start bleeding. You don't want that, do you?" My mom, Rebecca, asked me. She had the same hair color as me, unlike Ben, my twin. Ben had dirty blonde hair, while my mother and I have light straw blonde hair. We also had the same light skin and green eyes. My dad, Tom, told me every day that I was an exact copy of my mother; not just her appearance, but personality-wise too.

"No, mom, I don't wanna," I said, childishly pouting. I smiled at her, though, and turned away after a moment, staring out at the field, silently worrying about the competition.

"Hey, Ju. You're the best out here. You'll win this. Archery is so easy; it's just point and launch," Ben said, not taking his eyes off of his Harry Potter book. I laughed. It was like my twin could tell what I was thinking without even looking up from his reading.

"Ben, I really want to see you use a bow and arrow. It would be hilarious," I said while continuing to laugh. One day, in my first week of archery, Ben tried my bow and arrow in the garden. He didn't know but I saw, and it was the funniest thing ever. I had to wonder why I didn't film it, though. It would've been a priceless video.

"All competitors at the age of fourteen, please go to the field," an announcer voice proclaimed through a set of speakers. I gulped at his words.

"That's you, sister! Good luck!" Matt and Hal hugged me, while my dad, mom, and Ben just waved after me as I took off for the field

As I picked up my Raptor Compound Bow, I saw that there were two other boys in the field. I was the last one to reach the range.

"Hello beautiful!" the guy to my left said, staring at me like he was trying to rate me. Probably thought he was being smooth. I just rolled my eyes.

"Participants will shoot ten arrows, and the competitor with the most points in the end will win. The first participant is Juan Carlos." The first contestant was the guy who was staring at me. The commentator continued to talk as he shot his arrows. "Good shot, for the first arrow."

First shot was seven points, the second was nine points...Juan Carlos' total was seventy-one points, two of those shots being in the center for ten. The second competitor lost, scoring only fifty points. "The third and last participant is Juliet Mason. Will she be able to pass the great score of Juan?" I raised my bow, took a deep breath and let go. "Ten points in the first arrow! Juliet Mason starts on fire!" I smiled and continued shooting my arrows. Three...six...eight...and ten!

"Whoa, seventy-two points! Juliet wins first place and the grand prize of five thousand dollars!"

Triumphant, I took my trophy and took a picture with it as my family cheered on in the background at my victory.


"Bea! Wait! I need to put my books in my locker," I called after my friend, struggling with my load of school stuff.

"I'll just wait in the cafeteria, okay?" She said, smirking at me.

I tried to convince her with puppy dog eyes, but she just laughed and went off to find the cafeteria, leaving me alone.

I sighed and turned around to face the hallway of lockers. I passed by my older brother, who waved at me. I waved back shyly; Hal was with his lacrosse friends and all I could even think was that they were hot. Two girls were standing by them, probably fans if I knew my brother.

When I reached my locker, it seemed like most of the football team was standing in front of it. I bit my lips. Why was I so shy? I just needed go in there and put my books in my locker. It would be easy. Nothing to be worried about. I took a deep breath and started to walk toward them. The boys stopped talking and looked at me as I approached. They were older, probably Hal's age.

"You need something, girl?" The captain of the team asked me, with a cruel edge to his voice.

"Yeah, I need to put my books in my locker," I said, a little boldly. I pointed to the locker behind him. Thank you god for my Mason courage.

He just laughed and the others joined in. "And if we don't want to leave? Do you want to, guys?" They all said they wanted to stay, laughing more. One guy pushed me and my books fell down. I tried to pick them up, but another two boys kicked them, still on the ground. The captain grabbed my short light blonde hair and tugged on it, right where it stopped near my ears.

"You have a really beautiful face," the boy said, still holding onto my hair. He was leaning in too close for comfort and I tried my hardest not to feel intimidated by him.

I was going to try to get him to leave me alone, but before I could do anything someone pushed him up against the lockers and I stepped back. Hal was whispering to the boy.

"If you ever, ever touch my sister again, you will never see the light of day." Hal's voice was gruff and angry as he leaned aggressively over the captain.

"Oh, is her big brother her to save her?" He taunted, laughing a little.

In response, Hal punched him and the boy fell to the ground with a sharp crunching sound that probably meant a broken nose. I picked up my books and put them in my locker. Hal's friends were protecting Hal and I from the others in the football clan.

"Did he hurt you?" Hal asked, putting one lock of hair behind my ear.

"Yes, I'm fine, Hal...Thanks." I said, grinning up at my big brother gratefully.

He smiled at me after hearing that. "Always, princess. Always."


"Mattie? What are you looking at? Is it a squirrel?" I bit the apple that I was eating.

"Julie, you need to see this…" Matt put his hands on the glass of the window, never turning to look at me.

"What the…?" I said, standing beside Matt to see what he was looking at.. One big spaceship, I think, was flying above Boston. The TV and computer started to make noises and I looked over at them. They stopped after a moment. Matt twitched a little beside me at the sight of this. The cars outside stopped for no reason and people started screaming in anger about being late for their jobs. Babies started crying, and then there was silence. A frightening silence. The lamps in the room exploded and I screamed, jumping with fear. I tried to calm myself down, but I looked outside and saw things falling from the spaceship in the sky. I grabbed Matt's hand in fear. I was frozen still; I couldn't run or do anything. It was impossible.

"Oh my god…."

The bomb hit the land and exploded, a big blue explosion with clouds in the form of mushrooms. Wind from the explosion destroyed windows and cars turned over. I grabbed Matt and put him in the corner of the room, protecting him with my body. Our windows broke into pieces, some of them hitting me in the back. Matt was shaking and started mumbling, "Mommy...Daddy...Hal...Ben..."

"Mattie, listen to me. They are okay, but right now we have a problem," I squeaked. "Glass hit me in the back. It didn't hit you, did it?" He shook his head, tears falling from his eyes. "That's good. Right now I'll lay down and you will tell me if I have a lot glass in my back or little glass, okay?"

I laid down to go through with my plan, but before Matt had time to say anything, I heard, "Juliet! Matt! Where are you?" It was my dad. Matt quickly yelled back for him and I heard my dad running toward us, but stopping at the door. "What happened?" My dad asked as soon as he saw me.

"I was hit with glass trying to save Matt," I told him and realized I was crying. A lot. Tears were streaming down my cheeks as I thought of what had happened.

"It´s gonna be okay, princess," my dad told me calmly. I hated that nickname, but in that moment it was comforting.


We were in someone else's house. Aliens had invaded the world.

I put on some clothes, and opened the door of my temporary room. I heard yells from the door in front of mine and I curiously listened in. It was Ben and Hal, who slept in the same room. I shared a room with Matt. Why I didn't sleep with Ben, my twin? Because I was fourteen and sharing a room with my twin brother at that age would've been weird.

"You're a dumb jock." "Math geek!" They were fighting again and I knew it had become serious when I walked in and they were close to each other, both angry.

"Hey, hey, stop right now!" I put myself in the middle of them before it could get worst.

"Now is not a good time, princess," Hal whispered angrily.

"It´s the perfect time, actually. We're in the middle of an alien apocalypse and you two don´t stop! What the matter with you two? We can all die any moment for god's sake!" I was yelling and crying by that point.

"Jeez, princess, we'll stop, okay?"

Mom stopped in the doorway. "Darlings, I need to go looking for food with Harris."

"I'll go with you, Mom," I said, wiping my tears away. "There won't be enough hands with just you."

"Okay, honey, we'll leave in a minute."

I hugged Hal and Ben and went into my room quickly to kiss Matt's forehead. He was waking up as I did so and looked up sleepily. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find food with Mom," I told him, and he hugged me quickly. My mom came up behind me and he hugged her too.

"They were fighting again," I said when Harris, my mom, and I were inside of the mall center. "Shh," she whispered, "Harris, there aren't any aliens and we have the food. Juliet, we can go home and talk when we get there."

Out in the streets, I heard a muuuh noise coming from behind us. It must have been the bipedal robot things. "ALIENS!" Harris yelled, beginning to run.

"What?" I questioned, and looked back to see five or so aliens chasing after us. I dropped my food and started running as well. "Mom! Come on! Let the bag go!"

"We need the food, Juliet!"

The aliens got much closer as my mom and I argued over this. "They'll catch us!" I told her, urging her to run like I wanted to.

"Juliet, behind you!" My mother screeched. The alien pushed me, so I grabbed my knife and tried to do some damage to the alien. I heard a yell behind me and turned my head just in time to see one alien scratching my mom. I saw everything in slow motion and without any sound; my mom's head hitting the ground, her face turning to me and one single tear running down her face. Her eyes went dim, the light completetly gone, and my mom was dead.

"MOM!" I screamed and realized that the alien had me in its arms and was taking me away. I tried to get away the best I could, but the thing was strong, too strong. After some time, it took me to a strange room, with a large tank in the center.

"I don't wanna have that thing in my back! Please, no! Anything but that!" I pleaded as they put me on a table and a creature slithered down, landing on my back. I was never going to see my mom or dad, Hal, Ben or Matt, my family again. I was crying when the thing clamped down and suddenly I didn't feel anything at all.


"She's waking up!" I could feel my whole body again and it was a beautiful thing. It was simple kind of beauty, that I could feel, but with that thing living in my back, the simplest things never seemed to work. I blinked several times, seeing the most beautiful and incredible image of my whole life in front of me. There my family stood. Ben, with a shorter hair cut and a gun, smiling, my dad, with a new found beard, almost crying, Hal, with yet another gun, crouched down to my level and Mattie, with the biggest smile of all.

"Dad? Ben? Hal? Mattie? " I started crying. They were alive! I was alive. Oh my god, thank you!

"Hello princess," Ben said, looking down at me. I just smiled up at him, unable to say a word.

Everything was going to be okay from now on; I was finally back with my family.

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